Emil was frugal. Emil believed in keeping the home fires dimmed. He wanted to save some money. His tolerance to cold was high but to his wife's need for more warmth, it was low.

Martha would turn on the heat, leave the room for something and, upon returning, discover the heat mysteriously turned off--or intolerably low. What was she to do? Besides shivering to her bones, she seethed and burned inside with anger.

Martha wanted Jesus to help her see things differently. She wanted to see her husband differently. She knew that the relationship was not an accident and she knew there was a lesson in forgiveness here. Suddenly in Martha's heart there came a desire to learn what that lesson was.

One especially cold evening, Martha decided she couldn't deal with the problem any more. She turned it over to Jesus.

Within minutes a peace filled her from head to toe and with that peace came a warmth she hadn't felt for a long time. Now, no matter what the inside temperature is, she no longer feels cold. Where, before, she used to have to turn up the thermostat at the slightest bit of cold outside, now she finds she is toasty warm with the heater off.

This is a story of the potential that forgiveness has. Had Martha forced her will on Emil and made him leave that thermostat where she had set it, she would never have known the effect the healing power of forgiveness would have had on her own body's thermostat.

This world supplies many chances to forgive. If I blow one away, I'll have plenty of other chances. I'll always be given the choice to physically manipulate the world (Satan's preference for us. He wants us to turn up the thermostat) or allow the power of forgiveness to change me. The forgiveness Jesus taught us about and the forgiveness that Jesus provides us as we dwell in Him and He dwells in us, offers everything we truly want.

(I heard this true story in a class several years ago in California. I do not remember the actual names of the participants.)  

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